


Max Headroom: Mind Slaves

by ElegantButler



Category: Max Headroom - Fandom
Genre: Crime, Gen, Human Trafficking, Kidnapping, teen selling
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-10
Updated: 2017-09-19
Packaged: 2018-12-26 05:26:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 4,429
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12052269
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElegantButler/pseuds/ElegantButler
Summary: Someone is abducting the heads of R&D at the top Networks.





	1. The Abduction of Bryce Lynch

MAX HEADROOM: Mind Slaves

 

CHAPTER 01: The Abduction of Bryce Lynch

 

As Bryce Lynch slept, the door to his studio slid open. Two men, intruders to Network 23, stepped in quietly. One of them straddled Bryce and placed a gag over his mouth and a blindfold over his eyes as the teen genius awakened.

Bryce began to struggle as he was turned over and his arms bound behind his back. Then he was hoisted over a burly man’s shoulder like a sack of rice and carried off.

As the kidnappers departed, the other man poured gasoline throughout the lab. When they reached the door, he tossed a lit match into the room. Bryce heard the woosh as his studio promptly burst into flames.

 

A few miles away, unaware of his friend’s abduction, Edison Carter was watching the Polly Show with his friend and helicopter pilot Martinez.

“Can you believe people watch this junk?” Martinez asked.

“No, but Cheviot does,” Edison replied. “I just watch it for the mindless tedium.”

“I put it on for background noise,” Martinez admitted.

Edison stood up and fetched some leftovers from the refrigerator.

“I’m surprised you didn’t invite Theora over,” Martinez told him.

“I did,” Edison admitted. “But she has other plans.”

“I’ve got to head home after this show. It’s getting late and I’ve got maintainance in the morning.”

They finished the Poly Show in relative silence and Martinez departed.

Edison got ready for bed and sat in front of the TV for one more show, Lumpy’s Proletariat, before turning the TV to the Standby Channel and going to sleep.


	2. Captivity

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bryce wakes up and finds himself attached to an unknown device. Meanwhile Edison learns of Bryce's abduction.

CHAPTER 02: Captivity

When Bryce regained consciousness, he found himself in a seated position. His arms and legs were strapped against the arms and legs of a chair. He could feel several medical electrodes covering most of his head and body as well as goggles on his eyes and a gag filling his mouth, silencing him completely.

Had he been able to see, he would have recognized his former classmate, Jenny, as well as other ACS graduates seated other chairs also gagged their bodies and minds plugged into a single large machine.

Nearby, a series of screens hung on the wall, each showing an EEG reading and vital signs as well as several signals that spun and flashed at various speeds.

 

“What are these screens, Miss Arden?” a middle-aged man asked. “Surely they’re not dreams or computer-generated people.”

“No, Ralph,” Jane Arden, a woman in her mid sixties told him. “The minds of these kids work too swiftly for the computer to broadcast. The various signals are depicted as graphical animations.”

“So how do you know what they’re thinking?” 

“What each of them is think individually doesn’t matter. The computer takes their thoughts and combines them into a single hyper-mind.”

“Are you trying to unlock the secrets of the universe?” Ralph asked her.

“Don’t be silly!” Jane replied. “These are teenagers! Though they are some of the most brilliant teenagers known. I’m going to discover the secret of time travel.”

“Time Travel?” Ralph asked in confusion. “But that’s impossible! These kids can’t discover something that can’t happen!”

“Oh, they’ll discover it… the secret will be mine, and I’ll do in my power to get it!”

 

Edison arrived at Network 23 a few minutes behind schedule.

“I’m late, I know…” Edison said as Murray rushed to meet him.

“We have a big problem, Edison,” the producer told him. “Someone broke in and torched Bryce’s studio last night.”

Edison sat down heavily, fearing the worst. “Bryce?” he asked, wearily.

“We have reason to believe he was abducted. We think they torched his studio to cover their tracks and make us think he was killed. The metrocops were here earlier, but they couldn’t find any sign of human remains.”

“Thank god,” Edison breathed. “Any idea who took him or why?”

Murray shook his head. “It was too dark for the securicams to pick up anything clearly.

“If they kidnapped him, they weren’t on foot,” Edison said, “Theora, see if you can get a license plate number.”

Theora tracked the kidnappers to the van they’d been driving.

“No plate,” she told Edison. “But I’ve got the make and model. It’s a Bedford CA Dormobile. Old classic. Shouldn’t be too hard to find.”

“Were you able to get the faces of the kidnappers in the garage?” Edison asked.

Theora shook her head. “They kept their faces hidden. I’m sure it wasn’t Breughal and Mahler, though.”

“Wrong van,” Edison agreed. “Well, get me printouts of the van. I’m going to the Fringes. Maybe Reg might have a clue as to who we’re dealing with.”


	3. Discovery and Danger

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Grossberg discovers that Jenny is missing while Jane and Ralph make a dangerous decision

CHAPTER 3: Discovery and Danger

Ned Grossberg was frantic. Network 66’s security team had told him that his head of Research and Development, Jenny Wilcox, had been abducted by a pair of men they could not identify.

Jenny was about the same age as Bryce Lynch and had also been selected from the Academy of Computer Sciences.

He had spent the last hour yelling at various security guards, doormen, and other night crew employees about how they had missed seeing anyone carrying her off.

As he sat there, wondering if a ransom note would come, or if some rival Network had simply killed her, a thought crossed his mind.

“Maybe Bryce can help.”

He tapped in Bryce’s view phone number and waited for an answer. When he got no response he hung up.

“I wonder if Bryce has also been kidnapped,” he said to himself. He called Cheviot.

“Ben,” he began.

Cheviot cut him off.

“I don’t have time to parlay right now,” he said. “Bryce is missing.”

“It’s not just Jenny, then,” Grossberg noted.

“Jenny’s your Head of Research and Development?” Cheviot asked.

“Yes, and she was Bryce’s former classmate at ACS,” Grossberg explained. “If Bryce and Jenny were taken, others from their class might also have been abducted.”

“My god,” Cheviot gasped. “I’ll have Carter check it out.”

“Thank you,” Grossberg said, his voice full of worry.

 

After Grossberg was off his screen, Cheviot looked at the rest of the Board.

“Well, this is troubling news,” Edwards told him.

“I hope they’re alright,” Lauren spoke up.

“This is going to be a very good story for Carter,” Ashwell observed. “Should get pretty good ratings.”

Everyone glared at Ashwell, who had the decency to look abashed.

 

The Hypermind consisted of four of the best minds the city had to offer. All teenage graduates of the Academy of Computer Sciences. Each was from one of the four top Networks; Bryce Lynch from Network 23, Jenny Wilcox from Network 66, Alan Jameson from World One, and Sarah Richfield from Breakthru TV.

They had been painstakingly linked to the machine, their brains tuned into the computer’s digital frequency.

The setup was simple, effective, and devastating.

Jane turned to the computer they were attached to.

“Tell me the secret of time travel,” she demanded.

“That’s impossible,” their collective inner voices told her through the machine. “Time is not a physical plane of existence, therefore travel within it other than the standard day by day forward direction is not possible.”

Jane turned to Ralph.

“We need to hook up to the subconscious frequencies of their brains,”. She told him.

“We can’t,” Ralph protested. “You have to give up. Let them go!”

“No!” Jane demanded. “Unless you want your sons to be indicted in four kidnappings you’ll do as I say.”

Ralph shook his head. “This is blackmail.”

“You made your choice to cooperate with me when you sent your two boys to fetch those geniuses. And now those geniuses are going to solve my little problem.”

“If we connect to their subconscious their brains will become dependent upon the machine!”

“Do it,” Jane’s voice gave no room for discussion.

Ralph went to work readjusting the electrodes and the frequency rate of the machine.


	4. More News and the Madness of Jane

CHAPTER 4: More Information and The Madness of Jane

Edison and his team were going over what they knew about Bryce’s abduction when Cheviot’s face appeared on Theora’s screen.

“I just got news from Grossberg,” he told them. “Network 66’s Head of Research was also kidnapped.”

“How many other Networks employee ACS graduates at their Research Heads?” Theora asked.

“Just the top four,” Cheviot told her, “Us, Network 66, World One, and Breakthru.”

“So there could be four missing geniuses out there including our Bryce.” Edison said. “I swear if they’ve been harmed in any way…”

“Edison, you need to be calm if you’re going to solve this puzzle,” Murray pointed out. “These are smart kids we’re talking about. I’m sure they’re working out a way to escape.”

“We don’t know that,” Theora pointed out. “They could be incapacitated.”

“We still haven’t found the drivers of that car,” Edison said. “I’m going to go back to the Fringes and ask around.”

“Try Blank Bru-Bru-Bruno,” Max suggested. “He was once Bryce’s t-t-teacher.”

Edison picked up his vidicam and sped out of the Control room shouting “Tell Martinez to get the chopper ready!”

Martinez was ready for takeoff as soon as Edison reached the helipad.

“Where to?”

“The Fringes,” Edison replied. “There’s a man there who might have information on some missing teenagers.”

“Oh man,” Martinez groaned. “I hope you don’t mean Bryce.”

“Bryce and three others,” Edison told him.

“I hope they’re okay,”

“So do I. But I have this terrible feeling that their time is short.”

 

Ralph looked at Jane in disgust.

“If my sons weren’t involved in this mess, I’d walk out right now. The machine is basically all that’s keeping these kids alive right now. Their subconscious brain functions are so interwoven with the machine now, it’s all but shut down everything but their brains.”

“As long as they focus on my needs, that’s all that matters,” Jane told him. “My daughter’s death will be corrected.”

“Your daughter would hate you for doing this,” Ralph told her


	5. Bruno Helps Out

CHAPTER 5: Bruno Helps Out

 

Blank Bruno did not answer at first when Edison knocked on his door.

“Come on, open up!” Edison shouted through the locked door. “Your students are in trouble.”

The door opened and Bruno pulled Edison inside.

“What do you mean my students are in trouble?”

“Bryce Lynch and his colleagues from the other Networks have been abducted. That’s all I know at this time.”

“Any idea who took them? Bruno asked.

“All we have is this car,” Edison showed Bruno the picture Theora had printed out of the old vehicle.

Bruno frowned. “That looks like one of the cars that’s been seen driving around the docks. I don’t know if they’re shipping kids off or what, but if they are…”

Edison rushed outside with Bruno following him.

“The docks!” Edison shouted to Martinez. “I just hope we make it in time!”

“Let’s just hope they didn’t ship those kids out last night,” Martinez said as they took off with Bruno in tow.

 

It took only five minutes to reach the docks. When they arrived, Edison and Bruno rushed amongst the cars, looking for the one in the picture. When they couldn’t find it, they went up to a pair of dock workers.

“You ever see this vehicle?” Edison asked.

“Nah,” one of the workers told him.

“Wait,” another man said. “It looks familiar. I think I have seen it. A couple of brothers drive it out here every now and again.”

“They ever unload anything?” Edison asked.

“Unfortunately yes,” the man said.

“Shh!” his coworker warned. “If they find out you ratted them out, your kids will be next.”

“So they are involved in human trafficking,” Edison realized in horror. “Did they ship anyone off last night?”

“No,” their informant told them. “Funny thing, they never came here last night. They must’ve had a local buyer.”

“What can you tell me about them?” Edison asked.

“Not a lot. Most of us steer clear of them on account that we don’t want to get messed up in their dealings.”

“Thanks,” Edison said, heading back to the helicopter.

“Well, that was a waste,” Bruno said.

“At least we know the kids are still in this location.” 

“You know if we do find them, they’re going to probably hate you calling them kids.” Bruno pointed out.

“I just hope we do find them.” Edison told him.


	6. Reason and Insanity

CHAPTER 06: Reason and Insanity

 

While Edison and Bruno sought out the kidnappers, Jane stood once again before the Hypermind.

“Tell me the secret of time travel,” she demanded.

The voice which was a combination of those attached to the machine spoke to her.

“The concept of Time Travel was first broached in 1881 by Edward Page Mitchell in ‘The Clock That Went Backward’,” it told her. “Though it was H.G. Wells who popularized the concept in 1895 with his story ‘The Time Machine’. Although most stories regarding Time Travel….”

“Shut up!” Jane snarled at them. “Just tell me how to build a time machine!”

“While there have been many such machines written about in works of fiction, there is no way in real life to accomplish such a task.”

“Then make one!” Jane ordered. “I don’t care what you need to do! Even if you have to expend every ounce of mental energy you have, I will have my time machine! Now get to work, or I will make you all suffer.”

As she turned and walked away, Jenny’s mind asked “Doesn’t she know we’re already suffering?”

“I don’t think she cares,” Bryce’s mind answered her.

“So what do we do?” the mind of Sarah asked. “We can’t invent time travel. It’s just not possible.”

“We just have to stall until someone can free us from this prison,” Jenny told them.

“You heard that guy Ralph,” Alan pointed out. “He said our bodies have basically been shut down. We’re already dead.”

“No…” Jenny moaned. “I can’t be dead! Please… don’t let it be true…”

“So what happens now, then?” Sarah asked.

“Now we wait and hope someone comes soon enough so that we can be revived. The longer we’re trapped in here, the less likely that our bodies will still be revivable.”

“Bryce, please don’t think that….”

“Jenny…”

“No! I don’t want to hear it! That’s a horrible thought! We have to get help!”

“We can’t,” Alan told her. “The machine we’re hooked up to isn’t linked up to the System.”

“Edison will find us,” Bryce said, trying to sound hopeful.

“I just hope he finds us in time,” Sarah replied.

And so they waited, their organs barely functioning, their minds ensnared by the machine.


	7. Blank Reg and Shutdown Phase One

CHAPTER 07: Blank Reg and Shutdown Phase One

“What about Reg?” Bruno asked. “He knows a lot of people in the Fringes. He might have some idea of who might be connected to them.”

Edison slapped his forehead. “Of course! Reg! He’ll be able to help us!”

Big Time TV was in walking distance and it wasn’t long before Edison and Bruno arrived and knocked on the door of the pink bus.

Reg opened and looked at them in befuddlement. “Bruno! I hardly ever see you out these days!”

“We’ve got an emergency, Reg,” Edison told him, showing him the photo. “This vehicle look familiar?”

“Well, it’s not Breughal and Mahler,” Reg told him.

“I know,” Edison replied. “They’re traffickers. They’ve kidnapped Bryce and a few other teenagers. I need to know where they’ve taken them.”

“Bryce is such a nice kid,” Dominique said as she joined them. “I hope you find him.”

“I will,” Edison said confidently. Then with a little less confidence he added. “I just hope I’m in time.”

“Tell you what,” Reg suggested, “I’ll drive you. You might be able to spot the van better if you’re closer to the ground. Especially if it’s parked under something.”

“Brilliant,” Edison agreed.

Reg turned on the station’s microphone.

“This is Blank Reg. We’re going to be off on a small adventure for a bit, so enjoy this moment of silence brought to you by Big Time Television.”

 

“Bryce,” Jenny asked. “Can you remember anything from before you came here?”

“I think our conscious minds are also being affected by our subconscious minds’ being deflected into this program,” Bryce told her and the others. “The longer we stay, the worse off we’re going to be when and if they do find us.”

“My mind is also going,” Bryce admitted. “My childhood has faded. ACS is fading, too.”

“AC- what?” Alan asked. “I’m trying to remember what the color clear looks like.”

“I don’t think clear is a color,” Sarah told him. “But I can’t remember what it looks like.”

“I can see a face in my mind, but I can’t put a name to it,” Bryce said. “I don’t even remember of the person whose face it is was skinny or fat or what their voice sounded like. Such a strange face… almost unreal.”

 

Ralph looked up from the monitors. “You have to stop this!” he warned Jane. “Their organs aren’t going to function much longer at this rate! And once those stop, it will stop the brain processes! You won’t get your time machine then in either case!”

“They stay linked,” Jane told him. “That’s an order.”

“You can’t do this!”

“I am doing this!” Jane said.. “If you don’t like it, you can leave.”

“And have you rat out my brothers. No thank you.”

“It’s good that you remember where you stand,” Jane told him.

 

As Reg drove along the Fringes, Edison sat in the passenger seat looking out the side window while Bruno crouched between them looking out the front.

As they turned a corner, Edison shouted, “Stop! It’s the van!”

Reg pulled the bus over and turned off the engine.

Edison leapt out and rushed over to the Dormobile, looking into the windows.

“Who are you? What are you doing here?” a man’s voice demanded.

Edison spun around, holding up his vidicam. If the man was going to kidnap or kill him, Control would have his face.

“Edison Carter, Network 23,” he said. “I want to know what happened to my colleague, Bryce Lynch, and the other teenagers you kidnapped from the Networks.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Bryce Lynch. Research and Development. Network 23.” Edison growled. “Where is he? Unless you’d like to go down for kidnapping, I’d suggest you tell me everything. Your vehicle has already been identified as the one that was used for the abduction.”

“They’re with my father. He’s got this crazy friend Jane. She’s obsessed with time travel. They have this machine. I don’t know how it works, but your friend and the others are hooked up to it.”

“Where?” Edison demanded.

“The old train station down by the river.”

Edison rushed off. He climbed back into Big Time and shouted. “Train station! The river!”

Reg pulled off and headed for the train station.

 

As soon as Edison left, the kidnapper got on his view phone.

“Edison Carter was just here. He knows where you are and he’s on his way.”

 

Ralph turned to Jane. “We have to end this experiment! Set them free! If we’re caught…!”

“We keep going,” Jane insisted. “Once we go back in time, none of this will have happened.”

“You can’t travel in time,” Ralph shot back. “It’s impossible! The only thing that’s going to happen is we’re going to get arrested and probably have four dead teenagers on our hands when Carter gets here.”

“Dad’s right,” the kidnapper said over the view phone link.

Jane disconnected the call.

“Boost the connection!” she shouted.

“No!” Ralph shook his head. “It’ll kill them!”

Jane made a run for the controls, but Ralph grabbed her. “I won’t let you kill those kids!”

 

As Jane and Ralph struggled, Bryce and his three former classmates began to slowly shut down, their bodies and minds separated for nearly too long.


	8. Rescue and Recovery

Chapter 8: Rescue and Recovery

 

Edison, Reg, and Bruno burst into the room where Jane and Ralph were holding Bryce and the others.

“Bryce!” Edison said, rushing over to the machine.

“No!” Ralph told him. “You can’t just unplug them! The machine has to be disconnected in the right order or their minds will be trapped inside and their bodies will die instantly!”

“Tell us the sequence!” Reg demanded, grabbing him by the collar.

Jane, now freed, rushed over to Alan’s chair and yanked the wires from his head all at once.

“No!” Ralph shouted, too late to stop her.

Alan’s body convulsed in its captivity, then his head slumped forward. Edison realized he was dead.

“Blue wires first!” Ralph told them as Edison rushed to Bryce, Reg to Jenny, and Bruno to Sarah.

They removed the blue wires.

“Now what?” Edison asked.

“Green wires,” Ralph said, again subduing Jane.

The green wires were also removed.

“Now the white wires,” Ralph told them.

They removed the white wires. This just left the orange wires, which they also removed.

Bryce, Jenny, and Sarah each took a deep breath as their minds reconnected with their bodies.

“We need to take them to the medical center,” Edison said. “I don’t know how long they’ve been this way. I just hope they’ll be alright.”

 

At the medical center the doctors worked feverishly to restore the three surviving teenagers.

“It’s a shame about Alan” the representative from World One told Edison. “He was a good kid.”

“They all are,” said the woman who had come in from Breakthru TV.”

“I hope Jenny’s going to be alright,” Grossberg added. “I’m just wondering how their ordeal will effect them all.”

One of the doctors approached them.

“How are they?” Edison asked.  
“Their organs were dangerously close to a full shutdown,” the doctor explained. “They’re going to be here for a bit while they regain their function. I suspect at least a month.”

“May I see Bryce?” Edison asked.

“I want to see Jenny,” Grossberg added.

The representative from World One looked at the doctor. “And I want to see Sarah.”

“Follow me,” the doctor told them.

As he led them each to the room where their respective Head of Research and Development rested, the woman from World One, Grossberg, and Edison rushed to sit by their colleague’s bedside.

“Bryce,” Edison said, taking a seat next to Bryce’s hospital bed. “I don’t know if you can hear me. But you’re safe now. You’re no longer attached to that horrible machine. You’ll get help here. They’re going to make you better. You and your classmates will be okay. You’ve just got to hang on. Please do that for me. Please, Bryce.”


	9. Awakenings and Ideas

CHAPTER 09: Awakenings and Ideas

It was about ten that night when Jenny opened her eyes. She could feel the needle that was bandaged into her arm and the wires that were monitoring her heart and other vital signs.

Realizing she was in a hospital, she felt around until she found the nurse-call button. She pressed it and waited.

A nurse arrived a few minutes later. She was a kindly looking plump blond woman in her mid forties wearing blue scrubs and white sneakers.

“Do you need to use the restroom?” she asked, helpfully.

“Yes, please,” Jenny told her.

After they were done and Jenny was climbing back into bed, she turned to the nurse.

“How are the others? Bryce, Sarah, and Alan?” she asked.

“I’m afraid Alan didn’t make it,” the nurse apologized. “I’m sorry. Bryce and Sarah are both still unconscious. They’re very weak. Frankly, I’m surprised you’re awake. All three of you had very low organ function according to the doctors who examined you this afternoon.”

“When can I see them?” Jenny asked.

“Tomorrow, after breakfast,” the nurse told her. “For now, why don’t you get some rest.”

 

As much as she wanted to see her friends again, Jenny was still sleepy. She smiled as the nurse fluffed her pillow and made her comfortable.

“Thank you,” she said, drifting off.

 

Bryce emerged into wakefulness the next morning. It was still early, and the sun had not yet risen. But he was in need of the nurse, so he hit his buzzer.

After a quick bathroom trip, the nurse helped Bryce back into bed.

“How are the others?” he asked.

“The other boy, Alan, passed on. But both Sarah and Jenny are fine,” the nurse told him. “You all had a very close call. Another hour and your organs would’ve shut down irreversibly.”

“I know,” Bryce said. “I could feel my body stopping, but I couldn’t do anything about it.”

“Our minds were disconnected from our bodies,” Jenny said from the door where she sat in a wheelchair, a nurse standing behind her.

“Jenny,” Bryce asked. “You okay?”

“Still too weak to walk further than the bathroom,” Jenny smiled. “You?”

“Same,” Bryce told her. He felt a little weird talking to her. After all, what did you say to someone whose mind your own had recently been linked to?

Jenny smiled. “Awkward, isn’t it?”

Bryce tilted his head quizzically.

“Speaking like this after our recent connection,” Jenny explained. “Just yesterday we could hear each other’s innermost thoughts.”

“Unfortunately, our brains were thinking only of escape,” Bryce replied. “So we weren’t able to use the link-up to it’s truest advantage.”

“You want to try doing it again!” Jenny gasped. “Bryce! We almost died!”

“Because it was done by a madwoman who cared only about what she wanted. She didn’t consider the consequences of hooking up the entire brain to the machine. Don’t you see, if we only hooked up a small fragment of the brain, that part which deals with thinking and not the part that makes the body function, we might be able to come up with the ultimate think tank.”

“You do realize your thinking might still be foggy from our recent ordeal, right?” Jenny pointed out.

“You might have a point, Jenny,” Bryce agreed. “But let’s not give up on the idea entirely.”

“Maybe we can modify Zik Zak’s old Neurostim bracelets?” Jenny offered.

“They’re set to receive only,” Bryce told her. “We’d also need to make them send. And we’d also need to make sure we wouldn’t be transmitting every little thought, I want to hear your brilliant ideas, not your grocery list.”

Jenny chuckled. “Sleep on it,” she told Bryce. “I’m going back to my room. I’m still a little tired.

The nurse pushed her chair out of view and Bryce gave a yawn.

“Sounds like you need a little more sleep, too.” his nurse told him. “You’d best be getting some rest.”

Bryce nodded, slightly, and went back to sleep.


End file.
